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Ibn al-Haytham: The Emergence of Scientific Modernity offers the first comprehensive monograph on one of the most brilliant figures of the medieval intellectual world.
Spanning his groundbreaking contributions in mathematics, optics, astronomy, and natural philosophy, this book portrays Ibn al-Haytham as he was seen in his own time: a man of universal learning whose methods, sources, and intellectual reputation resonated far beyond his era. Moving beyond the familiar terrain of his Kit¿b al-Man¿¿ir (Book of Optics), it places his achievements in a much wider context, examining his lesser-studied writings on geometry, mechanics, and scientific method. Through a systematic analysis of these works, the book demonstrates how Ibn al-Haytham's experimental rigor, mathematical formalism, and critical engagement with earlier Greek and Arabic sources foreshadowed core principles of the European Scientific Revolution. It shows how his insistence on verification through observation and reasoning forged a distinctive approach that inspired thinkers from medieval Cairo to Renaissance Europe.
An essential resource for historians of science, Islamic studies scholars, and anyone interested in the intellectual foundations of modernity, this volume restores Ibn al-Haytham to his rightful place as a pioneering figure in the history of ideas and a bridge between classical learning and the birth of modern science.
List of contents
ContentsForeword
Introduction. Ibn al-Haytham: from basra to cairo.
PART ONE: MATHEMATICSChapter I:
Quadrature of lunes and of the circleChapter II:
Finding surface areas and volumes of solids bounded by curvesII. 1: Euclid,
Elements X, proposition 1
II. 2:
On the measurement of the paraboloidII. 3:
The volume of the sphereChapter III:
Isoperimetric and isepiphanic figuresChapter IV:
Conic sections: theory and applications. 1
Chapter V:
Conic sections: theory and applications. 2.
Conic sections and geometrical constructionsV. 1:
The construction of the regular heptagonV. 2:
On the construction of the heptagon in a circleV. 3:
The division of Archimedes' straight lineV. 4:
On a solid numerical problemChapter VI:
Point-to-point transformations and the new geometrical discipline: the knownsChapter VII:
Number TheoryPART TWO: OPTICSChapter VIII:
The reform of opticsVIII. 1:
Light and visionVIII. 2:
Light and coloursChapter IX:
Catoptrics, anaclastics and dioptricsIX. 1:
ReflectionIX. 2:
RefractionChapter X:
Burning mirrors, anaclastics and dioptricsX. 1:
Burning mirrors in the ninth to the eleventh centuries: From anaclastics to dioptricsX. 1. 1:
Al-Kind¿, Ibn L¿q¿ and their successorsX. 1. 2:
Ibn Sahl and Ibn al-HaythamX. 1. 3:
The heirs of Ibn al-Haytham's research on anaclastics in Arabic and in LatinX. 2:
Ibn Sahl: The geometrical theory of lensesX. 3:
Ibn al-Haytham and the development of dioptricsX. 4:
The burning sphere and the introduction of algorithmic methods : Kam¿l al-D¿n al-F¿ris¿PART THREE: ASTRONOMYChapter XI:
Ibn al-Haytham's new astronomyXI. 1:
Ibn al-Haytham's work in astronomy XI. 2:
The Configuration of the motions of each of the seven wandering stars XI. 2. 1:
On the variety of the heightsXI. 2. 2:
On the hour linesXI. 2. 3:
On the correction of operations in astronomyChapter XII:
The structure of The Configuration of the motions
XII. 1:
Research on variationsXII. 2:
Planetary theoryXII. 2. 1:
The apparent motion of the heavenly bodiesXII. 2. 1. 1:
The apparent motion of the noon between its rising and its meridian passageXII. 2. 1. 2:
The apparent motion of the sun between its rising and its meridian passageXII. 2. 1. 3:
The apparent motion of each of the five planets between its rising and its meridian passageXII. 2. 2:
The inclination of the wandering stars with respect to the equatorPART FOUR: PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICSChapter XIII:
Principles and fundamental concepts of mathematics :
magnitudesXIII. 1:
The concept of magnitude XIII. 2:
The comparison of magnitudesXIII. 3:
The concept of spatiality: placeXIII. 4:
Parallel linesChapter XIV:
Methods of proof and of discoveryXIV. 1:
The analytic artXIV. 2:
Direct demonstration and apagogic demonstrationBIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
About the author
Roshdi Rashed is one of the most eminent authorities on Arabic mathematics and the exact sciences. A historian and philosopher of mathematics and science and a highly celebrated epistemologist, he is currently Emeritus Research Director (distinguished class) at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, and is the former Director of the Centre for History of Medieval Science and Philosophy at the University of Paris (Denis Diderot, Paris VII). He also holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Tokyo and an Emeritus Professorship at the University of Mansourah in Egypt.
